GENEVA, Nov 07 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will have a strong presence at the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). COP29 runs from 11 to 22 November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The IPCC Chair, Jim Skea, will address the opening of the High-Level Segment for Heads of State and Government during the World Leaders Climate Action Summit on 12 November. On the first day of the conference, he will deliver remarks during the opening of the mandated Earth Information Day event. Among other engagements, he will deliver a scene-setting presentation at the opening of the 2024 Annual High-Level Ministerial Round Table on the pre-2030 Ambition scheduled for 18 November. During the COP29 the IPCC Chair is scheduled to meet with ministers, heads of delegations, and representatives from various organizations, constituencies, groups, and constituted bodies of the UNFCCC.
The IPCC Secretary Abdalah Mokssit will deliver a statement at the opening plenary of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). He will also take part in various events organised in the “Science for Climate Action” pavilion located in COP29 Blue Zone and hosted jointly with the World Meteorological Organization and the MERI Foundation.
IPCC Working Group II Co-Chair Bart Vanden Hurk will speak at the Special High-Level Event of the Leader’s Summit entitled “Adverse Impacts of Climate Change on the Decline of Water Basins” on 13 November.
Under the UNFCCC’s official programme of side events, the IPCC’s event will focus on the Panel’s work during the seventh assessment cycle, including the discussion about knowledge gaps from the perspective of the IPCC’s three Working Groups. The side event is scheduled for 16:45 to 18:15 on 14 November in Side Event Room 1.
The “Science for Climate Action” pavilion will have a rich program of approximately 40 scientific panels and events. IPCC´s contribution to the programme is designed to serve as a “toolbox” for the delegations and participants of the conference regarding IPCC’s work in the seventh assessment cycle. IPCC will host eight events spread across two weeks, organized around key thematic areas such as the urban, local and regional focus of the Seventh Assessment, planning for the Seventh Assessment Report, as well as new methodologies under the IPCC Taskforce on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, including updates on the IPCC inventory software.
Detailed information about the IPCC events at the COP29 pavilion can be found here.
To request an interview with the IPCC Chair, Vice-Chairs, Co-Chairs, or other IPCC experts present at COP29, please email ipcc-media@wmo.int.
For more information, please contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516 or Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120
Notes for editors
What is the IPCC?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.
Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, experts volunteer their time as IPCC authors to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group II, dealing with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and Working Group III, dealing with the mitigation of climate change. It also has a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for measuring emissions and removals.
IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC assessments are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. IPCC reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency.
About the Seventh Assessment Cycle
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 5 to 7 years. The IPCC is currently in its seventh assessment cycle, which formally began in July 2023 with the elections of the new IPCC and Taskforce Bureaus at the IPCC’s Plenary Session in Nairobi.
At its 69th Session (January 2024, Istanbul), the Panel agreed to produce the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report, a Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and a Methodology Report on Short-lived Climate Forcers. During this cycle, the Panel will also deliver a Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage.
In addition, a revision of the 1994 IPCC Technical Guidelines on impacts and adaptation as well as adaptation indicators, metrics and guidelines, will be developed in conjunction with the Working Group II report and published as a separate product.
IPCC’s latest report, the Sixth Assessment Report, was completed in March 2023 with the release of its Synthesis Report, which provides direct scientific input to the first global stocktake process under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at COP28 in Dubai.
The Sixth Assessment Report comprises three Working Group contributions and a Synthesis Report. The Working Group I contribution Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis was released on 9 August 2021. The Working Group II contribution, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, was released on 28 February 2022. The Working Group III contribution, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, was released on 4 April 2022 and the Synthesis Report on 20 March 2023. The Synthesis Report to the Sixth Assessment Report, distills and integrates the findings of the three Working Group assessments as well as the three Special Reports released in 2018 and 2019.
The special reports were on Global Warming of 1.5°C (October 2018.), Climate Change and Land (August 2019) and, the ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate (September 2019).
For more information visit www.ipcc.ch.
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